I can’t even believe I wrote that title. Honest to God, I can’t. Never in a hundred million years could I have imagined that I would be writing a blog post protesting (vehemently) the characterization of Thomas as some kind of upskirting downshirting whacko photographer type.

But I am. Last Friday, for some unintelligbly inexplicable reason, Thomas was tossed from the San Francisco MOMA by Simon Blint, director of Visitor Relations, after taking photographs in an area where non-flash photography was expressly allowed.

There wasn’t much conversation. There was certainly no reasonable discussion. According to this so-called “director”, Hawk’s 14mm ultra wide-angle lens was a “telephoto” lens that Thomas was using to shoot photos from the 2nd floor looking down; specifically, down the blouse of a female employee wearing a low-cut blouse.

Thomas writes in a follow-up post:

One allegation that has been raised is that Blint threw me out because he felt that I was shooting down a low cut blouse of one of his employees sitting in the atrium below where I was shooting. The photo above is a photo that I snapped of Blint as he was publicly admonishing me from the floor, that’s him with his arms crossed there — he’s about the size of an ant in the photo. As you will see, the female employee in question also appears in the photograph (the ticket taker next to Blint). She is not wearing a low cut blouse. In fact she’s wearing some sort of a yellowish/orangish sweater or jacket sort of thing — she’s sort of hard to see as a 14mm lens makes people look super far away. Her arms, shoulders, in fact every visible area of her except her hands are completely covered in clothing.

I have never heard anything more absurd in my life. As one who has had the fun of doing a photowalk with the guy in Santa Monica along with many others, I can attest only to this: Thomas Hawk is one of the finest photographers and artists that I’ve ever had the privilege of meeting, and he would be free and welcome to take my photo from two inches away or two stories up. I absolutely trust his artistic sense and sensitivity with his camera. In fact, I’d be honored if he did it. I’d even let him keep his $2.

Because seriously, the man has an eye like no one I’ve ever seen. One hour watching him is worth 10 figuring it out on my own. Not only should he have not been ejected, his work should be hanging in the SF MOMA.

Oh, by the way, here’s an example of the type of photo he was taking:

And here’s Simon Blint, in high dudgeon upon being informed that the entire incident would be blogged:

For the life of me, I cannot understand why a man with such a lack of gift for managing visitors and visitor issues has been placed in a position of authority over visitors. It boggles the mind. The guy has no clue when it comes to photography for sure, because anyone who would mistake an ultra-high wide angle lens for a telephoto probably relies on his cell phone for any pictures he takes. I could even forgive that, but to simply refuse to hear the other side and forcibly eject Thomas for an utterly bogus, trumped-up charge uttered in the heat of a hissy fit? Unbelieveable.

I count myself lucky to be the beneficiary of his lens, even in shadow. (Did I mention that this shot is in his fav10 set?)

Simon maybe doesn’t feel the same way. That’s his problem. If the SF MOMA has any sense at all, they will require Blint to make a formal, written apology to Thomas, retracting all suggestion of impropriety or misbehavior, and then should immediately reassign Simon away from the public to garbage management.

What a frickin’ putz.

(Photo Credit: Thomas Hawk)

The first in a series of water images, enhanced with selective shading, to invite you to find your own picture in the picture.

Lea Hernandez lost her home, pets and most of her art to a fire in September. Fortunately her family was physically spared, and their home was insured, but Lea makes her living with her art. The fire left the family with medical bills for the emotional fallout (which has been very difficult for Lea and her daughter in particular).

Lea is a very talented comic creator, and some of her friends are auctioning some treasures on Ebay to help defray her expenses. If you’re a Star Wars fan, you might want to have a look at the double-sided theater teaser poster from Episode 1: The Phantom Menace, signed by Samuel L. Jackson up for auction now.

All proceeds are being donated to help Lea get back on her feet. Her home is nearly rebuilt, but much of her art is gone forever, and she will be at the process of rebuilding her life for a long, long time to come. If you are a collector or just want to help Lea, consider bidding on some of the one of a kind items there.

Technorati Tags: Lea Hernandez, Samuel L Jackson, Tom Beland, comics, memorabilia, Gerry Duggan, auction, eBay

This popped up from the Megite news feed today. From TechEBlog.com, this image:

Created by Diamonster from deviantART, who spent more than 500 hours drawing it in MSPaint.

Check out all of TecheBlog’s top MS Paint Masterpieces.

Technorati Tags: MS Paint, TechEBlog, Megite

This is so cool! I love it. You have to go here to see it with the hysterical caption.

Lee, a shout-out! The Elf Jazz Band is missing their drummer. I really, really, really want to pay you to do one of these with a drummer and use it for our Christmas cards this year…you game?

Technorati Tags: elves, illustration, Lee, nuthinfancy, art

Lee has some great illustrations on her Flickr photostream. With each new one I am more and more in awe…her work is just a bit tongue-in-cheek with a campy twist.

Full Moon

vampire

Find More of Lee’s work:

Lee on Flickr
Lee’s Blog

Technorati Tags: art, illustration, vampire, witch, halloween

Steve Gillmor - Sexy Sadie

… Mike asked me why I was reading all these books on the ’60s. Simple, I told him: we’re seeing a renaissance similar to that one, where the arc of experimentation, youth, ego, sex, and money gave way to the constant change, the evolution as Jason called it, of those artists. The book I’ve been working through recently, Bob Spitz’ The Beatles, grinds relentlessly through the familiar (to me) story, adding layer of rhythm, pathetic floundering, and missed opportunities upon layer, to the point where you look back and suddenly remember how miraculous it was that they accomplished anything, let alone the breadth of their work.

Doc Searls - The East Within:

Flying out of L.A. last night, the view was unusually clear, and stayed that way. I could see to San Diego from over L.A., to Phoenix from over Flagstaff. I finally got myself to sleep after Albequerque. Woke up over Missouri somewhere. It was clear there too. Then I woke up over Chesepeake Bay, and could see ahead to the southern end of New Jersey. As we passed across Monmouth county and out north of Sandy Hook, The shape of Long Island was a lacework of tiny lights. Dawn, breaking over the Atlantic far to the east, was an edge of light over a scallop of distant clouds. As we began our descent over Providence, the cloud layers began to slide close beneath the plane.

As we punched down through the clouds, streaks of rain appeared in the plane’s headlights. When we reached ground just before dawn, it was rainy and gloomy. But I loved it, because, well, this end of the country is my homeland.

Susan Kitchens - There is Music:

These are the reasons why I insisted on making the playlists and putting together the iPod and speaker dock for my boyfriend’s mother. Because there is music. Especially when so many other things are gone, and words are too few.

She died in the wee hours of Thursday morning. Her lungs failed.

The genius of poetry is the imagery of life scenes, important and unimportant, milestones or just another day in the life.

Technorati Tags: poetry, blogs, art of writing